Each month Writers in Conversation invites two writers at differing stages of their writing career to share their work and engage one another in conversation about the craft of creative writing. The conversation is then opened to the entire audience for a lively discussion of all things literary. The evening is sure to both please and educate, not to mention inspire!
November 21st Writers:
Christopher McLucas is an Omaha native who wants to build and uplift communities with creative writing. He has written creative fiction for fifteen years, publishing 3 anthologies, a children’s book and a sci-fi novel. Christopher enjoys knitting, crocheting, board games and walking aimlessly to think or procrastinate. He is currently a Navigator at the non-profit, The Asteroid House, which provides sequential art programming for adults ages 55 and better.
Ethan Dudney is an aspiring young author and a lifelong resident of Lincoln Ne. Currently in his sophomore year of high school attending the Arts and Humanities focus program, Ethan has been lucky enough to participate in the Bennett Martin library writers write, publish 3 of his works in the UNL, YWC online anthology, as well as an additional 2 in the A&H literary journal. Ethan has always been deeply connected with the arts and primarily enjoys writing horror stories, however is an avid fan of poetry. Ethan has also won a state level gold and national level silver key in the 2024 scholastics art and writing competition and is no doubt, a connoisseur of creativity.
PREVIOUS WRITERS:
John Price attended the University of Iowa, where he earned a BA in Religion, MFA in Nonfiction Writing, and PhD in English. He has authored five creative nonfiction books, often using humor to explore the wildish intersections of nature, family, community and spirit—with a special love for the prairies and oak-lands of his Midwestern home. These include All is Leaf: Essays and Transformations (U. of Iowa Press, 2022), Daddy Long legs: The Natural Education of a Father (Trumpeter/Shambhala, 2013), Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships (Merloyd Lawrence Books/Da Capo Press, 2008; Paperback, U. of Iowa Press), and Not Just Any Land: A Personal and Literary Journey into the American Grasslands (U. of Nebraska Press, 2004). He is also the editor of The Tallgrass Prairie Reader (U. of Iowa Press, 2014), the first historical collection of nature writing entirely dedicated to the beauty and fragility of the tallgrass region.
He lives with his family in the beautiful Loess Hills of western Iowa, and teaches at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Isabel Essink is a senior at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She is a part-time gymnastics coach and full-time student. She plans to graduate in May of 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in English and chemistry. Creative writing is a lifelong passion she plans to continue both personally and professionally into and after graduate school. She has been involved in NWU’s literary and visual arts journal The Flintlock for two consecutive years, during which the journal has published her work and she has served on the staff as poetry editor. Isabel writes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.